Boy, I've never thought of myself as cynical about romance, but that really was my dominant thought today on my first unattached Valentine's Day -- or one of the few -- in probably 30 years.

Click to expand...

I'm not so much cynical about romance as I am about Valentine's Day. It's just a greeting card holiday and means nothing. If you want to take whoever out in January or buy them flowers in March, do it then, not just because the calendar says so.

I was shopping for a greeting card to give my wife and I saw one that was not appropriate, but funny. The front was designed to look like a magazine cover with all these goopy teasers to advice stories geared toward those people who are sickeningly, obsessively, borderline-stalkerlike in love. My favorite was, "Long-distance romance: How to not feel lonely when your sweetie goes to the bathroom."